153 Argilla Road, the Isaac Goodale House (1669)

The earliest section of this colonial home was built in West Peabody in approximately 1670 by Isaac and Patience Cook Goodale. In 1676, Giles Corey, age 65 was tried for beating to death one of his indentured farm workers, Jacob Goodale, brother to Isaac Goodale. Corey was charged with using unreasonable force, found guilty, and fined. This story surfaced again as evidence during the Salem witch trials, where Corey was found guilty of witchcraft and was pressed with stones for two days until he died.

In 1928, the house was reconstructed at 153 Argilla Road near Russell Orchards in Ipswich by Robert Lincoln and Susan Goodale. First-period elements include 5 fireplaces and a large central chimney, diamond leaded pane casement windows, hand-carved raised paneling, a steeply pitched roof, bare clapboards and trim, board and batten doors, and chamfered summer beams.

Most first-story summer beams run in a longitudinal direction, but in this house, we find transverse summer beams on the first floor, functioning as binding beams. The first-story transverse summer is almost exclusively an Essex County phenomenon. The house is listed in the National Registry of Historic Places.

Historical Narrative

By the Ipswich Historical Commission, from the Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System (MACRIS)

According to tradition, Robert Goodale moved from Salem to what is now Peabody in 1669 and built the house for his son Isaac shortly thereafter. Stylistic features suggest a construction date closer to 1700, however. The owner of the house in the early 18th century, Samuel Goodale, is listed in Salem records as a carpenter.

The house remained in the hands of the Goodale family until November 1915, 246 years later, when it was conveyed to Charles R. Stackpole of Nahant by Jacob Oscar Goodale. In December 1915 it passed to Walter H. Southwick of Nahant, and then, in April 1918, onto Lyman G. Smith of Cambridge. After Mr. Smith’s death, it was conveyed in September of 1921 to Josephine Turck, a widow.

In January 1929, Robert Lincoln Goodale, a practicing physician and collateral descendant of the original owners, bought the house for sentimental reasons and for its preservation. The house was disassembled and moved to its present location in Ipswich in the summer of 1929. Restoration of the house to its First Period appearance was undertaken by carpenter Eugene Dow. Dr. and Mrs. Robert Goodale were representatives of several owners on the north shore who purchased and restored First-Period buildings for summer homes or permanent residences. The restoration was, by early 20th-century standards, a careful one and a significant example of the early 20th-century restoration movement. No materials were brought in from other old buildings, and where historical material was missing, replacement materials replicated those already existing in the house.

In 1990, the owners established a preservation restriction agreement, also known as a “covenant” for this house with the Ipswich Historical Commission, protecting the house from demolition by present and future owners, and protecting the following elements: front and rear facades, stone steps, windows, frame, roof, fireplaces, doors, sheathing, cornices, staircases, and girts. The land surrounding the house is also protected by a conservation agreement with the Essex County Greenbelt Association. View more details at the Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System (MACRIS)

Maisie Crowther provided the following 4 photos. The first two were taken in Danvers/W. Peabody 1928-9. The next two show the reconstruction in Ipswich, 1929-30.

Isaac Goodale House,153 Argilla Road Preservation Agreement

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Recent photos